Ethnographica & Tribal Art

The biannual world tour of tribal lands – Alaska to New Zealand via Arizona, Africa and Taiwan – organised by auctioneer Will Hobbs at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) offered a global view of what is an active, if often unpredictable, field.

Specialist dealer in Oceanic art Anthony Meyer, whose gallery is in the rue des Beaux Arts on the Left Bank, is one of the Paris dealers who is doubly busy this September.

The gallery-lined medieval streets of the St-Germain-des-Prés area of Paris will be thronged with a babel of different accents and cultures during the second week of September.

As well as the themed shows, some of which are detailed on these two pages, this year’s Parcours has a loan exhibition that goes to the roots of the French tribal art collecting.

Anniversary of Cook voyage and a book 15 years in the making underpin London event...

Summer tribal art sales in Paris have produced a clutch of strong results for works from different world centres, both African and Oceanic, often for pieces that came with renowned provenances. Three of them are pictured here.

One of the longest-standing events in the tribal art dealing fraternity takes place this month in Brussels, a key centre of the tribal art market.

Three tribal art previews of objects being offered at auctions in Paris and Vienna.

Last year the UK’s regional salerooms were treated to a generous handful of five- and six-figure bids for unappreciated masterworks of Aboriginal and Oceanian art – a Maori putorino or bugle flute sold to a French dealer for £140,000 at John Nicholson’s of Haslemere among them.

One of the better reflections of the art world’s global reach is the tribal art market. No longer the preserve of a handful of aficionados or avant-garde early 20th century artists, the artefacts of non-European cultures are now the subject of worldwide interest and appreciation.

Burgundy beckons enthusiasts for tribal art this week with the third edition of the Bourgogne Tribal Show.

Not only is industrious Derbyshire auction house Hansons about to launch its new saleroom down south, but it is also starting a new sale format building on the popular tribal art collecting scene.

While BRAFA understandably dominates much of the cultural headlines during this period, it is not the only show in town.

Tribal art has long been a Belgian speciality due to the country’s colonial history in Africa. So it is not surprising to see this area well represented at BRAFA, with around a dozen participants in this field hailing from Paris, Brussels and as far away as Montreal.

The rising popularity of the tribal art collecting scene is tempting auction houses to take steps in that direction.